ONE of the things I heard about life but never saw it in front of my eyes until I became a member of the UG Council is how big names we think have formidable intellect in fact have mediocre minds.
You read and hear about these people and you spend a lifetime thinking that they are the crème de la crème of society. But when you interact with them or when they are in the public realm, then, you know people are not what you think they are.
I met huge names of prominence in Guyana when I was the union representative on the UG Council, and I can tell you that how they got their university degrees and how they rose to prominence were simply a mystery.
The name Bertrand Ramcharran immediately comes to mind. This man is a weekly columnist with the Stabroek News and under his byline he tells Guyanese he was a former Harvard lecturer.
He writes on international relations and I mean it very seriously when I say he hasn’t a clue what the contents of the international system are and how those contents take shape and lose shape over a period of time, and the subterranean currents responsible for those shapes.
In Guyana, the PNC has produced a lawyer named Dexter Todd. How did legal studies produce this man and where did the PNC find this man from? Since he became a PNC candidate, Mr. Todd has uttered more nonsense I have seen and heard from an election candidate than any other politician in Guyanese history. And trust me when I say that because I am a dinosaur in Guyanese politics, meaning I have been around longer than donkey years.
Mr. Todd said this week that the PNC did not lose the election and was not defeated. According to him, what occurred with the election results was a delay. Now before we dissect this unprecedented foolishness from Todd, let us present you with more incredible evidence of mediocrity in Todd’s mind.
Mr. Todd told Kaieteur News that a team is in Guyana gathering evidence about the murder of Adriana Younge but the team’s identity has to remain a secret.
See my column of Tuesday, July 15, 2025, titled, “Dexter Todd’s investigators’ visas should be revoked.”
Can a politician get more comical than this? The answer is yes. There is a politician like that and it is the same Dexter Todd.
Here is what Todd did to then Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton. He wrote to Mr. Ameir Ahmad threatening libel because Mr. Ahmad merely said, “people don’t know but me and Aubrey Norton are alright.”
I don’t want to dwell on this stupidity because I did a column on it. See my article for Friday, August 15, 2025, captioned, “Aubrey Norton, Dexter Todd and Ameer Ahmad.”
So, let’s get to the latest outburst of comicality by Mr. Todd. The gentleman is reported as saying about the PNC’s showing in the recent general election: “I see this as a delay. I don’t see this as a loss. I see this as a delay. Just a delay. But I always say a delay is not a denial.”
This is sheer mambo jumbo. I have never seen Mr. Todd argue a case before Guyana’s judges but the next time he is in court wild horses cannot stop me from going to see him.
The PNC lost 18 seats in the 2025 election, collected a mere 18 percent of the votes, did not win any of the Regional Councils, got dethroned as the major parliamentary opposition and was beaten in its genetic strongholds by a party that is just three months old and led by a political non-entity and Mr. Todd says this is not a defeat.
If those circumstances did not produce a defeat, then can Todd explore the meaning of electoral defeat and electoral victory?
Can Mr. Todd say if the PNC did not suffer loss in the election, who secured a gain? What is a loss and what is a gain in an election as defined by Todd? So, did the PPP obtain a victory? If Todd says no, then what constitutes a victory when parties contest an election?
It is confusion galore when you listen to Todd. I quote him again: “But I always say a delay is not a denial.” What is not being denied? What is it that Todd says he is not denying?
Todd tragically cannot see that it is people like him, Aubrey Norton, David Hinds, Tacuma Ogunseye and their acolytes that African Guyanese have rejected because they come across as not presentable. If Todd is in parliament, it will be comedy non-sop

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.